WANTED

of Greene County and attends Chuckey Elementary
School, is a young fellow who has a strong affection
for Tusculum College. He comes by it naturally. His
father and mother, Chris and Kim Dixon, graduated
from Tusculum College in 1988 and 1985, respectively,
and met at the College. Ben’s maternal grandfather,
Greeneville’s Jack Kilday, is a Tusculum College graduate.
Maternal grandmother Nancy Kilday attended
classes at Tusculum College and works with the College
today as a coordinator of admissions activities.
Ben also cares about Tusculum College because he
loves both history and sports, and Tusculum College
has plenty of both. He enjoys attending various Pioneer
sporting events, coming to the campus to watch
the Greeneville Astros play, and talking to “Pa Jack,”
as Ben calls his maternal grandfather, about the history
of sports at Tennessee’s oldest college.
He talks to his grandmother Nancy, too, and out
of that grows a story. One of the things that
”Nanaw” Kilday mentioned to her grandson was
the fact that Tusculum College’s 1910 library building,
now greatly expanded through renovation and
addition, was at the beginning a multi-use building,
one of its uses being a gymnasium. The oval
balcony encircling the main room of the old library
originally served as a running track.
That story, which combined elements of Ben’s two
favorite subjects, sports and history, intrigued the
young fellow. But a worry began to grow when Ben
learned of the major renovation and expansion of the
library that was busily going on in 2004.
Ben worried that, in the process of renovating the
older part of the library, Tusculum College might
do something unwise and remove the running
track/balcony. “I thought maybe we should keep
all this and the new part,” he says.
So Ben, typical boy though he is in most ways,
did something many boys would never have
thought of doing. With no one asking, he dipped
into money he had saved and invested $100 of it in
something worthwhile: the Campaign for the Library,
the ongoing fund-raising drive that finances
the library project.
Ben wanted the money to go specifically toward
preservation of the running track. And when he visited
Tusculum College in April to present his check to
President Dr. Dolphus E. Henry, he did it at a symbolically
appropriate place: inside the original library building,
on the running track he wanted to see preserved.
“Pa Jack” Kilday was inspired by his grandson’s
gift and matched the $100 with $400 of his own. And
thanks to those gifts, along with the generosity of
From left: Jack Kilday '57, Nancy Kilday, Kim Kilday Dixon '85,
with Kristen Dixon before her, Ben Dixon, and Chris Dixon '88.
The photograph was taken on the running track balcony in the
original library building at Tusculum College.
other friends of Tusculum College, Ben’s worries
about the future of the unusual running track/balcony
can now be put to rest. Tusculum College indeed
is keeping the track in place, and in fact has reinforced
it and given it a “face-lift” to improve its
appearance and better preserve it.
What was first a running track, then a walkway
where books were shelved, now becomes a location
for the display of art. The big central area of the historic
1910 building is turning into a study and research
area, surrounded by the reference collection
offices and library service areas.
As impressive as the renovated building is, Ben enjoys
best a mental picture of his own, an imagined
scene from the days when the library was still a gym.
“I can imagine the grand opening … bleachers all
along the sides, goalposts, ball players, everything,”
Ben says, looking out from the running track across
the old building while workmen saw and grind away
below him.
Ben’s parents declare they are not surprised by
Ben’s generosity. His father says that Ben enjoys
heading off in his own directions every now and
then. His mother notes that, when Ben finds a cause
he believes in, he likes to support it.
“Because he’s such a history fanatic, he’s just
amazed with the stories that his Pa Jack tells him.
And he sees the progress being made here, and that
there is a lot of the past still being preserved along
with the progress, and by coming forward, that has
made this little fellow very, very happy. And us too,”
says Kim.
For Ben, the bottom line is simple. ”I just thought
maybe I should help out.”
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